“The Year the Stars Fell” 11 x 30” Watercolor and Gouache on Paper

The winter of 1833 – 34 was known to many Plains Indian Tribes as “The Year the Stars Fell”.  That year, the Leonid meteor storm was recorded in numerous Indian calendars, called winter counts.  A winter count was kept by various tribes, as a pictorial reminder of what was deemed the most important event of that year.  These years were recorded from winter to winter, thus the name.

This particular year, 1833, is significant.  Because this spectacular stellar event was recorded by so many tribes, it becomes an accurate date marker in which to count forward and backward in today’s analysis of historic winter counts. “The Year the Stars Fell” is a form of Rosetta Stone in Native American archeological research.

Just last night was a rare event: a lunar eclipse during the night of the winter solstice… hasn’t happened in centuries!  In case you were not able to see it, here is a link showing some video of it: